Daffodils in the Backlight

We have a small pot of little daffodils, the miniature ones. They sit on the dining room table, and on a whim, I decided to take some macro photos with strong backlight coming from the patio door. The strong backlight left the foreground flowers a little dark, but when I lifted the shadows, what emerged looked a bit painterly — a little bit like watercolor. It is a very different effect for me, but I don't mind it for a change.

I didn't set out to create this effect; it just happened.

Caturday 58: The Cat in the Birthday Hat

This is a Sue and Lacey post. Aside from presenting it to you today, I have nothing to do with it.

It was recently Dr Suess's birthday, and Sue's photo prompt took her to the library to find some of his  books, especially The Cat in the Hat. Then, she had the brainwave to stick a birthday hat on Lacey.

She cleverly merged the Lacey photos with the library scene. The balloons were also added it post. Clever, indeed.

And that is it for this Caturday. Have a good weekend.

First Flowers of Spring

It's not spring yet, but it feels like it on some days. Last year, I found snowdrops in a little spot in town. I checked it out this week, and, sure enough, they were in bloom. This ↓ is the spot, and that is me.

As you can see, tiny plants lie in a little plot of ground between the sidewalk and a heritage house that almost abuts the sidewalk. Snowdrops are only a few inches off the ground, and I didn't know how I was going to manage with my macro lens, which is what I was determined to use. How in the world could I get down to their level? We had ported a little stepstool from the house, and that did the trick.

When I look at the photo, I am tempted to wonder about that weird man.
Who is he? He looks so old.

Sue had her own solution to getting her phone down to the level of the flowers. She attached the phone to her tripod, and as you can see, she got it quite close. But it was tough, especially as her phone doesn't have a macro lens. 

The shadows were deliberate, and you can see how little the flowers were.
In passing, notice the tiny brown leaves on the hedge beside Sue,
for we shall get back to them,

I was able to get two decent, macro photos although they both required a bit of cleanup in edit as there were spots of dirt on the petals.

I am chuffed to get these shots, for the first time that I ever saw snowdrops was at my dad's house about 40 years ago. Aside from this patch, which I discovered only last year, I think that was the only time that I have seen them other than in pictures.

If you will recall, I asked you to take a gander at the tiny leaves on the hedge. Well, I did take a photo, and, all things considered, I like it too.

So it begins, although I don't expect that spring will come galloping apace from here on. It is on its way though.

Thinking of Our Line Dancing Days

Apparently, the line dance to Beyoncé's Texas Hold'Em is sweeping the nation – the line dancing nation anyway. As I discovered, you can find all sorts of hits on YT. Here is one of the many renditions.

Here is quite an adaptation — a tap dance in the desert.

Those ↑ versions seem to be a little more intricate that what you'd get in a Tuesday night club session that would go a little more like ↓ this, just slightly toned down, I think. It is not necessary to watch it all, as they just keep repeating the steps in all 4 directions, for that is how many line dances tend to work.

There was a time when we would have been right into it. Sue wondered if we could do it again, but I know my dang foot couldn't manage it. When C19 was on, I thought to make a video of us doing the sedate Waltz Across Texas, just for fun, but I couldn't even do that properly.

Once upon a time, we went to a line dance evening for several years. They taught steps there, but we could also learn difficult routines on our own. For example: I give you ↓ Heave Away. Our teacher would have never tried to teach it to the whole gathering, but when we first joined, Sue and I would stay and watch the more expert dancers do their thing at the end of the full sessions. Once we saw them do Heave Away, we went home and learned it on our own. After that, we would dance with the experts in the afterglow.

It was so much fun and good exercise too. I am glad that we did it.

For those who weren't around a few years ago, even though we didn't do Waltz Across Texas, we did do our version of the Monty Python Silly Walk to brighten a forlorn COVID day. It was silly, indeed.

It's All About the Light

For the previous two years, Sue's photo group has called for her to photograph the same location in each of the four seasons. This year, they ask her to return to the location of her choice on the 5th of each month. It can be tricky here where we have such a real winter because we can't get to some locations in winter — or at least in a normal winter. Due to accessibility, we have to choose carefully.

This year, we chose the entrance to the park nearest to us. This meant that we wouldn't have to struggle to get into the park in order to get to the chosen spot, but the view would still be acceptable. A photo of a beautiful cover of snow could be pretty nice too.

The trouble is that there haven't been many great winter photos this year. While there was snow in February is was not one of those dreamy winter photos. 

We checked it out around noon on the 4th, and the scene was uninspiringly drab without snow and also with no rising of spring colour. I suggested that we should return when the sun was low behind us, to see if and how it would light up the park. Well, it certainly did.

We are reminded that photography is about the light.

This ↓ is approximately where Sue will take her photo on every 5th of the month. At about 5:30, you can see the long shadows, mine included. The light is warm in the low sunlight whereas it had been somewhat stark when we had checked closer to noon. 

There were geese on the pond, and the two by the little peninsula caught my eye. I like their reflections as well as the tree reflections. We came at a good time, both in terms of the time of day and for the calmness which gave us the reflections.

I tried to situate the geese well in the frame.

Speaking of frames, I decided to try a shot through the branches, and I like the result well enough. In a photo like this, something pretty well has to be a bit unsharp, but I can accept the somewhat blurry branches for the sake of the composition.

I seldom think to capture video, but here is a very short clip of the geese and their honking.

Here is Sue's composite of the scene. She returned the next day, which was the proper day for the photo, and put it in a composite. She also got clouds in the sky, which doesn't always happen.

The Shape of Things to Go

Referring to the title, what is it that is going to go? It is the ice that appears these photos. 

We walked in Riverside Park for the first time in awhile because the path is, thankfully, now clear. Hopefully, it will remain that way now that we're into March, but time will tell.

Silly me left his camera at home, so I pulled out my phone. I have more or less decided to eschew phone photography, but any port in a storm. Eh.

Nothing extraordinary here. Just sharing the walk with you and photographing a bit of ice while it still exists.

As you well now, sometimes I like to play with photos, and I thought I'd try that one ↑ in b&w and eventually nudged it into a sepia ↓ vintage look.

Foggy Sunday Morn

I pretty well knew that it would be foggy when I awoke on Sunday because it had been thick when I went to bed. It was 5:30 when I peered out the window, and I thought I should head out with the camera. A proper photographer would have done that — seized the fog, as it were. Evidently, however, I am not a proper photographer. 

I remained irresolute for the next hour, but decided to get out there at 6:30. I began to get ready but caved again. It was still cool, and I also needed a shower before I hit the grocery store.

I've recently got into the habit of shopping early on Sunday morning. I didn't mean for it to happen, and I don't prefer it, but since I, somehow, got on that track, we seem to to run out of supplies by Sunday morning.

When I finally left home at about 8:30, I did grab my compact camera, and I stopped for a few snaps on my way both to and from the grocery store.

The first two photos were on the way there and the last one on the way home. I only went very slightly out my my way in both cases. I also converted completely to mono: might as well because it was close enough to  b&w anyway.